{"id":168998,"date":"2026-02-08T07:01:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-08T07:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/168998\/"},"modified":"2026-02-08T07:01:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T07:01:19","slug":"hundreds-of-roosevelt-high-students-march-to-city-hall-in-protest-of-ice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/168998\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Roosevelt High Students March to City Hall in Protest of ICE"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of Roosevelt High School students left campus Friday and marched to Fresno City Hall, marking a week of anti-ICE protests in Fresno Unified.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think once somebody puts their foot forward, everybody\u2019s going to want to come along. We\u2019re using our freedom of speech to say what we want to say.\u201d \u2014 Natalie Ramirez, Roosevelt High School junior\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

An outpouring of students, armed with pickets and posters, left class at 12:30, using the sidewalk to march about 2.5 miles downtown. Fresno Unified offered bus transportation back to school for students who participated, a district spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The student-led protest was organized by three juniors, Natalie Ramirez, Sofia Suarez, and Selina Carreon, who hoped to gather a large crowd of students and bring more attention to immigration activity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think once somebody puts their foot forward, everybody\u2019s going to want to come along,\u201d said Ramirez. \u201cWe\u2019re using our freedom of speech to say what we want to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related Story: Buchanan High School Students March to Willow Station in Anti-ICE Protest<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018We Stopped Our Lessons to Teach You One\u2019<\/p>\n

And Rooesvelt students showed up, spanning a few blocks. The group held signs reading \u201cICE Kills\u201d and \u201cWe stopped our lessons to teach you one\u201d and were greeted with supportive honks from passing cars.<\/p>\n

\u201cI come from a family of immigrants, and there\u2019s lots of families getting separated from each other for no reason and lots of children losing their parents,\u201d said Alicia Viaueva, a freshman at Roosevelt. \u201cAnd I just feel like everyone\u2019s human. Everybody should be treated equally.\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple students told GV Wire they feel it\u2019s crucial to use their voices because they don\u2019t face the backlash adults do. Additionally, some, including Adeline, a freshman who declined to provide a last name, felt they were speaking for their parents or family members who could not.<\/p>\n

Senate Bill 955<\/a>, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September 2022, allows middle and high school students a day-long excused absence for participation in a civic or political event. Some students have cited this bill, but very few in comparison to the number of students who have walked out, a district spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

The walk-outs have had no effect on district funding, the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Roosevelt Students Cite History and Build Community<\/p>\n

The group, comprised of a diverse array of students, left school with one mission: Protest the current administration\u2019s deployment of ICE and support each other.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s good to have support from facility and students because it shows that everyone is here and working together in this community to keep us safe,\u201d said India, a sophomore who declined to give a last name. \u201cAnd we all have one thing that we can agree on, finally\u2026 it shows our community can come together.\u201d<\/p>\n

She told GV Wire that students from all different racial and ethnic background were coming together to protest of ICE\u2019s aggressive enforcement tactics.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me feel really good that I\u2019m not alone,\u201d Viaueva said.<\/p>\n

\"\"Roosevelt High School Students march down Cedar Ave. towards Fresno City Hall in protest of ICE. (GV Wire\/Anya Ellis)<\/p>\n

A few teachers joined in, displaying protest signs.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m glad they\u2019re standing up and exercising their rights,\u201d said one teacher who identified herself as Miss K. \u201cEspecially the volume of kinds. I finally see everybody coming together. There\u2019s no clicks. It\u2019s just all love.\u201d<\/p>\n

Students cited the 1960s civil rights movement and a history of protest in the United States. It is important to use their voices for the next generation, Suarez said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think if we don\u2019t make the change, everything\u2019s going to stay the same,\u201d Ramirez said. \u201cIf we\u2019re not the ones being outspoken, nobody\u2019s gonna speak.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Roosevelt High School students left campus Friday and marched to Fresno City Hall, marking a week…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":{"0":"post-168998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-fresno","9":"tag-fresno-headlines","10":"tag-fresno-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168998","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}